Writing on Actresses and the Modern Transformation of Opera Fandom in 1910s Beijing

This article explores the modern transformation of opera fandom in early twentieth-century China through the hitherto unexamined fan literature about actresses by men of letters. Ostensibly conservative in both its style, based on earlier huapu (flower registers) writing, and its invocation of Confucian values, fan literature was caught up in the political and literary ferment of the times, proving to be startlingly innovative in developing new genres and appropriating reformist discourses. In promoting their preferred actresses, opera fans, writing in a sentimental style, dominated the public sphere of theater commentary and fought over the ethical position of women performers and their admirers. In some regard, the writings of opera fans in early Republican Beijing paralleled Butterfly fiction and the fans themselves constituted a sentiment-based, morally conflicted, and politically conservative urban public. The article argues that opera fandom was simultaneously a conservative response to modernity and the very embodiment of the creation of the Chinese modern